I've decided to stop hating Mondays.

From the movie "Office Space"

Ah, Monday. The day everyone loves to hate. Historically - and please note here that I am no historian but I do have internet access - Monday has been recognized as the second day of the week in most cultures (although the modern ISO standard recognizes it as the first. Go figure.). It celebrated the "moon's day" throughout many pagan religions, but later Christian and Orthodox religions recognized Monday not as a celebration of the moon goddess Mani from Norse tradition but simply as the day that followed Sunday, when the Lord's resurrection was commemorated.

Today we view Monday as the start of a long work or school week. It gets a bad rap, to be sure. We imagine that Mondays seem to stretch into endless hours of managing problems, putting out fires and trying to resolve one crisis after another. We may still feel the afterglow of a restful or rejuvenating weekend and are trying to come to grips with the fact that the next one seems like such a long way off. Yet Monday has the same number of hours, minutes, seconds as any other day. If there are more chaotic moments on Monday than on any other day I would wager that this is a result of a bad attitude or the stress of someone else's bad attitude being imposed upon someone else. So the cycle continues. 

I wouldn't consider myself "old" (some may disagree) but one thing I have learned is that Mondays inevitably pass, and in many cases pass much more quickly than one would like. I am slowly beginning to understand that whatever day it is - Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday - the days are quickly passing by. Before I know it, Monday has turned to Friday, which gives way to the weekend, then lo and behold - the process repeats itself. I hope that the fact that I can recognize this cold hard truth will allow me to find some appreciation and joy in each day. To curse a particular day is not only a waste of my precious time but may even blind me to the beauty that that day may possess.

Just doing some quick math here, should I be fortunate enough to see 82 years in my lifetime, I will have enjoyed around 4,160 Mondays. Being halfway to that age now, that leaves me 2,080 Mondays left. That's 49,920 hours, or 2,995,200 minutes of my life that I can spend appreciating the fact that I have that day to enjoy or mope about it. 

Perhaps it's taken me this long to get with the program but I am going to approach the day and the week with a sense of gratitude rather than remorse. I'll look forward to a solid week of training and preparation for my next race. I'll look forward to a good week at work, and try to help those who may not be quite so jovial about the new work week. The bottom line is that regardless of whether I want to embrace the day or add my voice to the many who choose to complain about it, I only have so many of them left. And I would rather spend them solidly in the former camp.

So hang in there, Monday! I've got your back. For whatever THAT'S worth.....

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson. Simply the best.

I am finding myself to be more and more put off by "glowing screens". They're so ubiquitous these days that it seems that one cannot throw a rock in any direction and not hit someone staring intently into a phone, tablet, or laptop computers. For my part, I have to admit that I have become just as entranced by my own various miniature glowing screens - my own phone, tablet and computer are constantly providing me with some connection to the "Great Cloud." I stream music on my phone and iPad. I watch various videos and programs on my iPad and computer. I am constantly checking emails and updates on social networks. I don't watch much television but I am sure I have more than made up for that time waste in other ways. In short, I am just as much a part of this plugged-in, logged-on culture as anyone.

I am sure that there are those who would contend that such technologies are merely a tool - and, like anything else, they can be overused to the point where it is almost an addiction. I like to think that I am using these products positively - daily prayer, good music, mountain running videos, and the like. Yet the more I observe others who seem a little too plugged in, the more concerned I become with the state of my own relationship to technology. I catch myself wasting away hours on social media that seemingly serves no useful purpose. (While I am tempted to end my relationship with social media, I have granted it a "stay of execution" on account of the many wonderful friends I have made with other people who share my passions for running and the outdoors. So it is hanging on for now, but only by the slimmest thread.) I have become dependent upon music when I run to help relax me, rather than developing mental techniques that might allow me to be more aware of my surroundings and "in the moment", as it were. Rather than spend time with my family I allow myself to watch TV programs on my tablet in the evenings. None of these things in isolation or in moderation are bad, mind you. It just seems to me that, for me anyway, they're just too omnipresent.

Since I spend the majority of my working day looking into a computer screen I am finding it difficult to make myself devote any time outside of the office to looking at a computer. This, of course, makes blogging quite difficult. There are many posts I would love to author on the state of my training and nutrition, including race reports, articles, and the like. I would love to spend more time on a lot of things actually, and yet I find that I can either spend time doing things or writing about doing things. Me being who I am, naturally I choose the former. This does not mean that it isn't for lack of desire but when it gets right down to it there are only so many hours in a day.

I am in the process of attempting a radical overhaul of my time and my priorities at the moment - changes which, I hope, will bring me not only peace of mind but will help me to truly enjoy the fleeting moments of a life that seems to be passing by at breakneck speed. I am not going to spend time navel-gazing here but I can only hope that such changes will help me grow to become a better person. I can only hope I learn more about my relationship with God, other people, and the world around me. Time permitting, I will share more thoughts on the subjects that occupy my mind in the coming weeks and months. But for now, it looks like posts on the blog page may have to appear somewhat sporadically. I need to try to get away from the glowing screens for a while - which isn't such a bad thing when you think about it.